The iconic mince pie.

You either love it or you hate it. No, literally though - usually when people say you either love something or you hate it they're talking about Love Actually or Bono or something that people can absolutely feel very indifferent about. Mince pies, however, do fall into one of two categories. Here on the Her desk, we've had our fair share of mince pies thrown at us over the past month. Some of us devour them and lament the fact that we don't have a bitta fresh cream to lob on the side. Others turn their noses up at the delicious treats and leave them to rot on the desk, never to experience the cool crack of a fresh mince pie pastry as it descends into their mouth. Despite all this disparity though, there is one question that has been plaguing us (and the general public, probably) for weeks on end. We've been kept up at night, tossing and turning, sweating profusely just trying to figure out the answer to the one question we need answered this festive season: Why are mince pies called mince pies? The truth, as it turns out, is not quite as brutal as we thought. Mince pies are called mince pies because traditional recipes included mincemeat. We know - huge if true. Back in the day, mince pies were still a festive treat served around Christmas time but they were filled with mincemeat, dried fruits, and a load of spices. Sounds delish. The pie originated in the UK and naturally, became a bit of a Christmas tradition. The humble treat can even be traced as back as the thirteenth century. Madness. Once the mince pie started being associated with Catholicism during the English Civil War, Puritans started looking down on the dessert but that did not stop people eating them and enjoying them too. Now, the modern-day mince pie is filled with a mix of dried fruit and spices, and although this mixture is still called 'mincemeat', there is no actual meat in there (thankfully). Mince pies may be still popular af in Ireland and the UK, but they don't really appear to be a thing anywhere else. We guess the sound of eating something with mince in it as a light afternoon snack isn't actually all that appealing.